Think about your daily life. Think about what you do throughout the day. Eat? Sleep? Drive? Exercise? All these things have one major similarity. What is it? Science.

Science is the underlying reason for everything that we experience on a daily-basis. Almost every aspect of life revolves around the concept of science. In order for someone to understand how or why something works, an understanding of the science behind it is necessary.

In this particular blog post, we will be focusing on one concept in science and how it relates to everyday life and academic life.

In our chemistry class, we have learned about mixtures and how there are two types: homogeneous and heterogeneous. Their definitions are as follows:

Homogeneous- a mixture that consists of uniformly distributed components and cannot be mechanically separated nor can the individual components be observed. Salt water is an example of this.

Heterogeneous- a mixture that consists of components that are not uniformly distributed and the individual components can be observed and usually mechanically separated. An example of this would be a salad.

In other words, and simpler terms, homogeneous mixtures take multiple components and make them one. Heterogeneous mixtures allow for each component to maintain its individuality.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 2

Homogenous

Also known as solutions, which is a combination of different substances to form 1 through a chemical reaction. (ß important)

Other stuff

Heterogenous

Fjdklsa (Maybe just add more to the definitions instead of creating a characteristics section. I just wanted to include more stuff to help tie into the next part smoother.)

In this blog post, Mixtures in Cooking and Learning Communities by Brandon Connelly and Natalie King, we will show you how cooking, though it may be an everyday thing, can be a good setting for a concept of chemistry as we observe the importance of heterogenous and homogenous mixtures and how each affects the outcome of what is trying to be created with the purpose of drawing never before seen parallels between this world and the world of chemistry.

Based on this blogpost, Mixtures in Cooking and Learning Communities by Brandon Connelly and Natalie King, the scientific concept of heterogeneous mixtures and homogeneous mixtures can be compared to the context of our learning community and the activities performed in it. By comparing these two concepts, we, Brandon and Natalie, will help the reader draw parallels and better understand the scientific concept of mixtures.

Mixtures and Baking

Now that we understand what homogenous and heterogenous mixtures in chemistry are, lets take a look at how we can observe them in an everyday real life setting.

Shift your mind from the science lab to your very own kitchen. The kitchen is our lab for now, as we analyze the importance of homogenous and heterogenous mixtures in baking a cake.

Have you ever baked a cake (or even cookies) and they just don’t come out the way you expected? And then you realized that instead of mixing the dry ingredients separate from the wet ones, you just mashed them all together thinking it wouldn’t make any difference? Doing this as we know result in a nasty concoction. Now, before we sit here for eternity scratching our head wondering why this is, let’s take a look at the science behind this phenomenon.

Say a cake recipe calls for:

1 cup of sugar

1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

½ cups of butter

2 eggs

1 ¾ teaspoons of baking powder

½ cup of milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

With these ingredients and following the instructions we should be able to bake a tasty vanilla cake. The instructions clearly state in this recipe that the sugar and butter are to be mixed first, then the eggs and vanilla. In a separate mixture we combine the dry ingredients baking powder and flour, and then we mix that with the sugar/butter/eggs/vanilla mixture to form the batter.

When baking powder is mixed with water, a reaction occurs and carbon dioxide gas CO2(g) is released.

Flour contains proteins that bond as they are mixed with water to form gluten, a new substance.

As mentioned above in the introduction, a chemical reaction is a common characteristic of a homogenous mixture. As we are observing, it appears that the cake batter should be a homogenous mixture. It matches this characteristic, it looks uniform, why is it heterogenous?

Though many may argue that cake batter is a homogenous mixture because of its observable uniformity, we know it is heterogenous. This is because in a heterogenous mixture, we can have partial reactions.

In other words, the mixture of ingredients from cake batter results in some chemical reactions here and there, but we are still left with a mixture of things that can be separated. Though it may be very difficult to separate, it is still possible and therefore heterogenous.

Now you may be thinking why it’s so important to know this to solve the mixing phenomenon we proposed earlier. Say we mix the ingredients wrong. We are going to have chemical reactions occur in places and at times that can change the outcome of our delicious treat. This is why we must follow the mixing instructions carefully to yield the best tasting and looking result.

Same goes if we mix the batter too long. The CO2 released from the reaction of the baking soda could complete itself, meaning that the rising property within the batter will be lost and the outcome will be a failure.

Mixtures in Cooking and Learning Communities by Brandon Connelly and Natalie King

Think about your daily life. Think about what you do throughout the day. Eat? Sleep? Drive? Exercise? All these things have one major similarity. What is it? Science.

Science is the underlying reason for everything that we experience on a daily-basis. Almost every aspect of life revolves around the concept of science. In order for someone to understand how or why something works, an understanding of the science behind it is necessary.

In this particular blog post, we will be focusing on one concept in science and how it relates to everyday life and academic life.

In our chemistry class, we have learned about mixtures and how there are two types: homogeneous and heterogeneous. Their definitions are as follows:

Homogeneous- a mixture that consists of uniformly distributed components and cannot be mechanically separated nor can the individual components be observed. Salt water is an example of this.

Heterogeneous- a mixture that consists of components that are not uniformly distributed and the individual components can be observed and usually mechanically separated. An example of this would be a salad.

In other words, and simpler terms, homogeneous mixtures take multiple components and make them one. Heterogeneous mixtures allow for each component to maintain its individuality.

In this blog post, Mixtures in Cooking and Learning Communities by Brandon Connelly and Natalie King, we will show you how cooking, though it may be an everyday thing, can be a good setting for a concept of chemistry as we observe the importance of heterogenous and homogenous mixtures and how each affects the outcome of what is trying to be created with the purpose of drawing never before seen parallels between this world and the world of chemistry.

Based on this blogpost, Mixtures in Cooking and Learning Communities by Brandon Connelly and Natalie King, the scientific concept of heterogeneous mixtures and homogeneous mixtures can be compared to the context of our learning community and the activities performed in it. By comparing these two concepts, we, Brandon and Natalie, will help the reader draw parallels and better understand the scientific concept of mixtures.

3 thoughts on “Mixtures in Cooking and Learning Communities by Brandon Connelly and Natalie King”

I know this isn’t finished and I think it looks good so far! I think you could benefit from building more rapport and trying to build a connection with the audience, since this is a blog and not a fancy schmancy research paper. The definitions are good, but I think they sound a little so scientific, and I think it would be a good idea to translate it in a way that someone who might not have any idea what these things are could easily understand. Maybe also add a video summarizing or expanding on mixtures, TED-ed has a lot of really great videos!

I really enjoyed reading your blog. What I liked most about it was the fact that you didn’t just jump into your main topic you actually discussed a little bit about their everyday life and all the things they have in common, science. You also Incorporated that they have to know the science behind what they do to better understand it.

I think your topic is super interesting! You guys could use some pictures and also change up the syntax a bit. What I mean by that is, add in some exclamatory sentences. Make the blog a bit more exciting so it will interest your reader and keep them invested in your blog. Change up the diction and the overall feel of your blog. The diction is a bit to academic and formal. Think about your audience and try to make it sound a bit more relatable to them. Other students are reading your blog. Use language that relates to them a bit more. Lol, hopefully I made sense there. I mean keep your academic topics and statements, but just simplify them a bit. Not dumb them down, but simplify them.

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About (Re)Writing Chemistry

At its core, this Learning Community Blog, as a collaboration among chemistry and writing faculty and students, has given college students the opportunity to experience Chemistry through Writing and to better define the relationships between academic writing, science, and their daily experiences.

Posts are written by students at Chandler-Gilbert Community College as a way to introduce key chemistry concepts and practices while experimenting with ways to relay, re-image, and transform this science for a variety of audiences across contexts.